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Providing unprecendented, free access to primary moving-image historical
material is part of a Rick Prelinger's commitment to making public domain works
meaningful as such. When Prelinger Archives, an archive housing over 48,000 'ephemeral'
films (including educational, industrial, propaganda, advertising and amateur
films) was acquired by the Library of Congress last year, more than 1,500 of the
key titles were digitized, and made free and available to the public as downloadable
MPEG2 files to 'encourage the widespread use of moving images in new contexts
by people who might not have used them before.' Iconic films such as 'Duck &
Cover' (what to do during a nuclear attack, featuring a caroon turtle) and 'Are
You Popular?' get the most hits, but stunning home movies, WPA films, cautionary
tales and utopian kitchen tours are easily found as well among these uncopyrighted
or copyright-expired films. Source: rhizome.org
http://www.archive.org/movies/prelinger.php
On a diet? This site
is understated, drenched with ideas and involves the consumption of art. Plenty
to metaphorically chew unless you are onsite in Belgium:
for
what/whom do you hunger?
When I was in the Whitney Program, someone hosted
a discussion on French writer/theorist Antonin Artaud and the centrality of 'hunger'
to his conception of a theater undifferentiated from the overwhelming forces of
reality. Participants became extremely agitated and eventually walked out -- invoking
corporeal desire, visceral need, pleasure, and any semblance of human 'universality'
proved too much to bear for their theory-conditioned reflexes. These intricate
issues form the basis of a series of multimedia meals hosted by f0amf0od. Events
such as Blanc-Mange Cinema and antipasti:Sound Bites consider food one medium
among many others (audio, visual, interactive). These 'mixed reality settings'
are meant to be fun and I think Artaud would have approved of these investigations
of what people crave literally and more poetically. f0amf0od events are slotted
for the next few months and happen mostly in Belgium. Details on the site (sadly,
no menus). Source: rhizome.org
http://f0.am/events.html
Out of Africa,
we are genetically designed to live in hermetic villages - this work explores
the man on the streets response to a momentary prison/trap/safe space. Would you
go in? Would you feel safe?:
going
alone
Dutch artist Karen Lancel presses notions of security and space
by secluding participants and focusing their interactions on the topics of isolation
and fear. In her work 'Agora Phobia (digitalis),' a white, translucent contraption
offers a space for insular conversations with agoraphobics, prisoners, and otherwise
cloistered peoples. These dialogues do not remain private however and are archived
online along with personal testimonials about human contact (or lack thereof).
By superimposing different traumatic experiences of separation, Lancel demonstrates
how differently these can be measured depending on whether one dwells on physical
spaces or psychological states. Participate online or this weekend in New York
City. Details on this Saturday's event, as well as upcoming programs in Holland
and Germany, are noted on the site. Source: rhizome.org
http://www.agora-phobia-digitalis.org/
duchamp
and poincare
Henri Poincare is widely regarded as the first Western scientist/mathematician
to examine nonlinearity in systems. Important work between 1880 and 1910 dispelled
the Newtonian dream of a clockwork universe - Poincare proved that the equations
for predicting the movement of three bodies in space (e.g. sun, moon, earth) were
fundamentally insolvable. Poincare went on to ask whether systems have a Poincare
recurrence - e.g. if chocolate is poured into cream and both whipped does the
distribution of chocolate settle down to a consistent state when the process is
repeated? The answer is no: the distribution shows all the signs of having a sensitive
dependence on initial conditions - core chaos theory - and the distribution is
unique every time.
Marcel
Duchamp is one of the most important artists of the twentieth century, and mentioned
Poincare in writings. So the question becomes: how important was Poincare to Duchamp's
understanding of the structure of reality? Was there some kind of nonlinear chaos
thing lurking in the background of Duchamp's denial of standard art structures
and conceptions of reality? For some that is a resounding YES.
Certainly Duchamp was exposed to Poincare's writing whilst working in a Parisian
library before emigrating to the US. For a considered discussion click this
link and if the subject excites, here
is a review of the more general background of scientific developments of the time,
and how these mesh with Duchamp's approach.
scientist
causes rewrite of pollock cannon
Booze, women, paint splattered barn, artist
as overblown expressive ego, cultural icon: sound familiar? These are some of
the key phrases associated with the work of Jackson Pollock, few of which sit
happily in today's postmodern art world. The concept of Pollock as drunken boho-ego
needs a revamp, as fractal scientist and art-inclined Richard Taylor has examined
Pollock's work and found a fractal dimension that can explain Pollock's development.
It seems Pollock's urge to capture fundamental elements of nature might have a
mathematical foundation.
http://materialscience.uoregon.edu/taylor/art/fractal_taylor.html
hysteric
patriotism goes bush in states
Commentary: US patriot - terrible, crude
website, but given the hysteria and "fact-fiction" the US is undergoing,
topical.
Publicity:
The inspiration for American artist Amy Alexander's new work PPMMM
is the nefarious workings of the Bush administration. Alexander contends that
the government has pilfered the popular 'exquisite corpse' magnet poetry sets
-- consisting of dozens of magnetized words ready to be creatively configured
-- that usually adorn refrigerators. Alexander's smoking gun: the USA PATRIOT
Act, which officially stands for 'Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing
Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism.' Considering the
acronym an insult to the magnets, Alexander has programmed a desktop version of
word-magnet-poetry. PPMMM, or the Post-PATRIOT Magnetic Motto Maker, an application
for home-sloganeering and motto-making is available for both Macs and PCs. The
artist also recommends sending your slogans to Washington, but considering the
reach and force of the Patriot Act, we suggest users proceed with caution. Source:
rhizome.org
intelligent
gathering maps lovely weather
Commentary: Mediatopian - academic, well
constructed, clever, densely packed with essays, new art and good thought. Lovely
site.
Publicity:
Guy Debord and the Situationist International cautioned the 1968 Parisian intellectual
community that the ‘the spectacle’s function in society is the concrete manufacture
of alienation.’ ‘Mediatopia.net’–a repository
of recent net art projects curated by Lara Bank and Andrew Bucksbarg–addresses
contemporary examples of the spectacle’s hold on society. Projects explore government
intelligence gathering, digital love, tensions between old/new media, and corporate
marketing strategies. Michael Alstad’s ‘Choice Maps,’ for example, investigates
identity fingerprinting through the use of choice-tracking surveillance technologies,
while ‘Right as Rain: a weather dependent love sonnet’ by Anomie Spleen, Jeff
Knowlton and Jeremy Hight uses online weather information to gauge its ever fluctuating
narrative. ‘Mediatopia’ projects may lure you into their spectacles–or drive you
to the streets in protest! Source: rhizome.org
little sister catches big brother in web mirror
Commentary: Surveillance
and society - a new journal, peer reviewed it would seem, which crosses over to
the nitty gritty of this new society in which we live, where we are being looked
at intensely - a discussion running from the politics of freedom to art, sociology
and ethics. Very PM. [Not premenstrual, but postmodern - Ed].
Publicity:
For an alternative to watching Big Brother, check out the on-line journal Surveillance
& Society, edited by Dr David Wood. The new issue ‘Foucault and Panopticism
Revisited’ will be out mid July and should, considering the beefed up dataveillance
initiatives by many governments in the last two years, have a new dimension of
relevance. The first Surveillance and Society conference, scheduled for January
2004 in Sheffield UK, is also accepting papers on the politics and practice of
video-surveillance. The web site has a 'resource base' on surveillance studies.
solar
powered lab blows research from venice to antarctica
Commentary: Makrolab
- networks, non linear data, artists, media workers, scientists collaborate -
great stuff and ongoing...is a long term project..good site design.
Publicity:
There have been many momentous developments in global economics, transnational
mobility and information technology during the last several years, so it's not
surprising that artists have been compelled to respond and reflect upon them.
This year, the 50th Venice Biennale will include an ongoing project called Makrolab
that was begun by Slovenian artist Marko Peljhan in 1994. Makrolab, which will
be situated on Campalto Island in Venice Lagoon from June through September, is
a working laboratory powered by solar and wind-based energy that facilitates research
into the intersections of technology, ecology, and communication. Some of the
areas of study include: network-centric identities; nonlinear data display and
usage; local ecology awareness. Makrolab is scheduled to operate in its mobile
form until 2007, when it will be permanently sited in the Antarctic and run by
a transnational organization. Source:
rhizome.org
surfers
against sewage
Take the largest oil tanker disaster in Spanish history,
add David Carson, Damien Hurst & Maia Norman, Banksy, Jamie Hewlett and Laird
Hamilton and you have crossed the borders of contemporary design, high art, graffiti,
comics, and surfing and wound up in an exhibition raising awareness and money
for environmental issues.
http://www.oxbow-longlife.com/
A
Perfect Friend, 2003, unique ink jet print after collage. © Matthew Rose
for
the love of... dogs
In honor of (wo)man’s best friend, Savannah College
of Art and Design Presents "Pour L’Amour des Chiens" at Mona Bismarck
Foundation, Paris, France. The show celebrates the loyalty, aesthetic appeal and
charm of the canine species and features mixed-media work including photography,
paintings, installations, jewelry and clothing from well-known artists and SCAD
faculty and alumni.
Featured
work includes a crocheted poodle by Karen McVay Butch, and Tonya Tarr's "Chien
Mail," a sterling and 14-karat gold vermeil necklace with green fresh water
pearls. Stylish dog furniture includes Nopmanee Supsoontornkul's innovative Corian
bed and feeder, and Wesley Crosby’s funerary cabinet "Fluffy's New Home"
that sends a dog off in style.
Installations
in the exhibition include Cynthia Collins "Quintessential Love," a huge
metal tub filled with 100 pounds of dog bones and an old towel belonging to her
dog. Denise Falk’s installation titled "Le Petit Chaperon Rouge et Grand-Mére,"
plays off the theme of Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother.
The
exhibition includes photography by Joyce Tenneson and Sandy Skoglund, Bailey Davidson,
Deborah Samuels, Marcus Kenney and Larissa Thut; painting and collage by Xie Caomin,
Monica Cook, Kenneth Knowles, Matthew Rose, Erin Rachel Hudak, Jennifer Nolan
and Troy Wandzel; and prints by Stephen Gardner, Stephen P. Mosch and Arturo Soto.
One room of the exhibition features William Wegman’s famous photographs of
his Weimaraners.
Information:
Mona Bismarck Foundation, 34, avenue de New York, Paris, France.
Contact:
Angela M. Hendrix Director of Public Information. Tel: 1.912.525.5225
Cell
phone: 1.912.398.7416 cell E-mail: ahendrix@scad.edu
Europe: Gwendoline BEUZELIN
- gbeuzelin@d2s.fr
Dominique de SOUZA-PINTO ? dsp@d2s.fr
Tel : +33 (0)1
53 42 65 74
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